ER

Fifteen years ago I remember watching a videotape of a show I'd recorded off NBC. I remember watching it and falling in love with the characters, the stories, the whole thing. It was a little show called ER.

Last night I watched the series finale (yes, a few months after the fact) and was saddened to think that something I've been watching for half my life is over. I grew up with those characters. And they affected me in so many different ways.

I remember that fall it premiered, I was still in high school, wandering the stacks of the Howell Library, looking for books. Not just any books. MCAT books, books on medical careers. I was going to be an emergency room physician I decided. I read and read. And then I finally realized I didn't have the right type of intellect (I can't memorize to save my soul, and that's pretty important in med school I hear). But I soaked up the information and research anyway, I was fascinated. (The Practice made me want to be a lawyer, The West Wing made me want to move to Washington D.C., Alias made me apply to the CIA, you sense a trend right -- hopefully writer will get me "into" all these careers someday!)

In grad school I took a course in health communication and we did a study on how health information was dispersed through television and movies. We used ER as an example several times. Finally, all my TV watching was paying off!

But more than that, ER showed me, every week, what good writing looks like. How it is quick and interesting and funny and serious and makes you cry and laugh and think all at once. And the finale did just that. I love television, and for me, ER will live forever as a part of my life.